Harmonic Prospector

@Peston " A landslide victory after the nadir of the 2019 election" With 500k fewer votes

The consensus at the top of the Labour Party appears to be that Keir Starmer won’t announce a timetable for his departure until Andy Burnham fights the Makerfield by-election. But that makes very little sense to me. Because, as I said on ITV’s News at Ten, the probability he can survive as PM, even if Burnham were to lose the by-election is low. This is what his cabinet colleagues and trade union leaders have made clear to him (and to me). So the timing and manner of his exit are now at the mercy of events, which makes him a lame duck prime minister - whose utterances about policy will barely be heard above the racket of speculation about how and when he will go. This would be humiliating for any PM, but perhaps doubly so for Starmer given that his genuine success in taking Labour to a landslide victory after the nadir of the 2019 election would risk being forgotten and ignored if his last weeks in office are spectacularly chaotic. The limitations on his power are already conspicuous. As his closest colleagues tell me, he was only powerful enough to do the most limited and unambitious of reshuffles to fill the vacancy at health created by Wes Streeting’s resignation - although the disaster of last week’s elections would have been the trigger for a more comprehensive reshaping of the Cabinet if the PM were stronger. Starmer lacks the authority to force any of his ministers to move or leave the government. It’s telling that the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood kept her job even after her allies briefed she told the PM his time is up, and that Streeting dictated the timing of his own resignation, even though his enforcers were actively briefing against the PM. In the Cabinet, the prime minister is supposed to be the first among equals. In Starmer’s case, scrap “the first” and maybe insert “second”. Also, resignations and sackings have over months left his Downing Street team depleted. As even his friends tell me, few want to take a career risk by working for him, partly because of the open secret that he won’t be in post much longer (and partly because the Whitehall zeitgeist is that he is the worst kind of delegator, one who insists on delegating but then shows little loyalty or understanding when things go wrong). So what’s the alternative to him being in office but not in power, as it were? Perhaps he should emulate Tony Blair, despite many in his party having repudiated the Blair years. In September 2006, Blair announced he would resign within a year and he stood down the following June. This longer timetable meant Blair wasn’t tainted by the chaos of unexpected immediate elections. And because the election schedule was dictated by him rather than by factors beyond his control, he looked commensurately stronger. He appeared to be the master of events, not the victim. The “will he? won’t he?” about Starmer last week was exhausting just to narrate, as I had to do. Goodness knows how bad it was for the main protagonist, Starmer. To be clear, any PM that says he’s off is weakened by that very pledge. But Starmer might actually have even less authority in today’s limbo, where everyone but he acknowledges the reality that he is a short-dated stock.

@TotalRockOnline @GingerWildheart @TheWildhearts I concur with every word of this! Me and my 19yr old lad were down the front, moshing, hugging, and singing our arses off the whole set! 🔥 Nothing but pure joy! Thank you Ginger 🙏

@GingerWildheart @TheWildhearts Review of The Wildhearts and Silveroller gig at Signature Brew London now up on TotalRock words and pictures by Dawn Osborne #thewildhearts #gingerwildheart #silverollerband #jonniehodson totalrock.com/ginger-and-sil…

@CarolineLucas @bbcquestiontime Interestingly she spent time picking out members of the audience who 'looked' like they would be from the right - older, white men, one was even wearing a poppy badge - but they ended up being the ones challenging Reform and flying the flag for inclusivity and pro-immigration

What a refreshing @bbcquestiontime audience - consistently pushing back against the toxic rhetoric on immigration from Tories & Reform & celebrating the contribution of immigrants. #bbcqt

@CreativeDeduct @lewis_goodall @YouGov Do you think a 2% tax is going to make the slightest bit of difference to the lifestyle of someone whose wealth exceeds £10m

@lewis_goodall @YouGov Of course. Most people love taxes they don’t have to pay. And few are economically literate enough to understand the damage such a tax would do.

New @YouGov polling shows 75% are in favour of a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million.

@GingerWildheart And there was me thinking for 30+ years that Earth Vs was released when you were all in your early 20s. So great to see you looking so fit and healthy 💪

Not in bad nick for 60

A sobering message from a history teacher: I’ve spent years teaching American and international government — from strong democracies like the UK to authoritarian regimes like russia and China. But lately, the most alarming lesson comes from home. 1/n

@Sammy44867533 @TheGlastoThingy It's normally late May/Early June

@TheGlastoThingy Re 2 posters, if / when is a 2nd poster likely to arrive? And/or further acts?

So there it is. This is the 3rd earliest line-up drop and the first announcement ever made on 6th March. Since the move to 2 posters in 2014, 95 acts named is the joint highest equaling 2024. This is the first time day splits have been on the poster since 2010. #Glastonbury

This is Jess Philips. Do you know who should really be ashamed? @RobertJenrick who was Home Office minister Oct 2022 to Dec 2023 and is capitalising on far right lies. The Tories for allocating child sex abuse victims £40 each and Elon Musk for being a dangerous ignorant moron.

@GingerWildheart Bit of a cheat this one, but I don't know a single person who doesn't love Motown, and by default that means everyone loves the Funk Brothers 'Band'

Is there a band that EVERYBODY loves? I don’t think there is. Apart from AC/DC.

@TheGlastoThingy Now that you mention it, from what I recall from watching at home that year there wasn't a huge amount of his set broadcast.

@fyferant I think part of the deal now is the whole set is now broadcast, that wasn't the case in 2009.

Oh... FFS. #Glastonbury #NeilYoung rollingstone.com/music/music-ne…

Mainstream media outlets constantly decry the spread of disinformation on social media. And yet you literally have to rely on social media to correct the disinformation being spread by mainstream media outlets about what actually happened in Amsterdam.

I spoke today to oppose the government’s proposal to cut Winter Fuel Allowance. I voted against this because it will not only cause real hardship for many of my constituents this winter there is a real risk some will die.

This tweet has gone a bit mad, most are disgusted by Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing and by Oasis/their management agreeing to it. If you didn't get a ticket, if you rightly refused to pay the extortionate prices, spend that money at smaller acts at a local independent venue.

@SallyCleal @TheGlastoThingy @TicketmasterUK @oasis The set price was 150 including fees. This is Ticketmaster capitalising on demand.

@TheGlastoThingy @TicketmasterUK They don’t set the price. @oasis management do. Greedy bastards

Dear @TicketmasterUK No matter how you try to justify this, it is abhorrent. Absolute scum company.

Getting sick of repeating this so I’m going to just put it into one long post/maybe thread that I can share with people. No-one has been jailed for harmless social media posts during the riots. Every single person who was jailed broke the law. They were not jailed for ‘jokes’ or ‘silly posts after a couple of glasses of wine’. They were jailed for publishing written material online to stir up racial hatred, for inciting violence, or for breaking other related laws. In the UK, free speech is protected, but there are clear limits when it comes to posting violent threats or inciting racial hatred online. Several laws ensure that this kind of harmful content isn’t just shrugged off as "free speech”. Under section 18 of the public order act 1986, it’s a crime to use "threatening, abusive, or insulting words" with the intent to stir up racial hatred, or even if it’s likely to do so. This means you can be arrested for posting something that could incite hatred, even if no one actually acts on it. It’s still a crime. Then there’s the serious crime act 2007 (specifically sections 44 and 45), which makes it illegal to encourage or assist a crime online, including violence. Again, the key here is that your intent or the likelihood of causing a crime is enough to get you into legal trouble, even if the crime doesn’t actually happen. It’s still a crime. The communications act 2003 (section 127) also plays a role, making it an offense to send messages that are “grossly offensive” or “menacing”. So, if you post something that’s threatening or meant to harass, you can face charges regardless of whether the threat is carried out. It’s still a crime. Lastly, the new online safety act put in place in 2024 (before Labour were in power, for you ‘two-tier Keir’ lot) ramps up accountability, requiring platforms to remove harmful content and holding people responsible for posting it. Elmo doesn’t seem to care about this right now, but it’s still in UK law. Here are three examples of people locked up, and why they were locked up: 1) Jordan Parlour: 28 year old from Leeds, jailed for 20 months after he posted on Facebook urging people to attack a hotel housing asylum seekers. His posts were intended to incite racial hatred and violence, leading to his arrest and conviction under the public order act 1986. He pleaded guilty. 2) Wayne O’Rourke: 35 year old from Lincoln, sentenced to three years in prison for using his large social media following to stir up racial hatred. He posted inflammatory content encouraging others to join in anti-immigrant violence, which led to his arrest and then sentencing. His arrest was not for anti-establishment content, that was simply mentioned in the case. The charges were very clear and he also pleaded guilty. 3) Tyler Kay: 26 year old from Northampton, sentenced to 38 months for his social media activity. He reposted messages calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire, which the court found to be a clear attempt to incite racial violence. He initially contested the charges, but evidence shown in court proved his guilt, and he was convicted. The first two were not forced to plead guilty, the evidence was clear. It’s nothing to do with discounted sentences, and there’s no evidence to suggest it was, they just didn’t have a leg to stand on. In the UK, free speech doesn’t mean you can say anything without consequences. The law draws a line when speech becomes harmful, especially when it threatens violence or incites hatred. The law in the US is different because the first amendment offers more protection, even for hate speech, unless it directly incites imminent lawless action. The UK focuses more on preventing harm before it happens, recognising that words can have serious real world consequences.

@GingerWildheart @YouTube How Flyte still haven't broken through is completely beyond me! Timeless, classic songwriting, lovingly arranged with harmonies to die for. So far 3 albums of harmony-drenched beautiful songs, and still no big hit! youtu.be/swdNAnlgBZo?si…

Songs that should have been hits. A thread. What you got? Guided by Voices on HBO's "Reverb," 2001 youtu.be/svFOhgt1WSI?si… via @YouTube

Jack Karlson, the man made famous for his arrest while enjoying a Succulent Chinese Meal, has died. He was 82.

Nationwide tonight, attempted protests by the drunk far right thugs, vandals, looters and arsonists have been met by 5x, 10x or even 20x their numbers of Anti-Racists, Anti-Fascists, and other ordinary, sober people. Real people, who represent real Britain. No drama.